Wabash National Widens Loss as Trailer Demand Keeps Sliding
Wabash National posted a net loss of $23 million to $26 million in the second quarter, roughly 2.5 times the year-earlier shortfall, even as revenue topped its own guidance.
Wabash National (WNC) reported a widening net loss for the second quarter, with the trailer and truck-body maker estimating net sales of $413 million to $421 million, down 8% to 10% from $458.8 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA swung to a loss of $9.7 million to $12.6 million from a positive $16.3 million in the same period last year, and GAAP diluted loss per share is estimated at $0.57 to $0.63, more than double the $0.23 loss posted in the second quarter of 2024.
The results extend a stretch of deteriorating profitability that has tracked a steady decline in trailer volumes. New trailer shipments fell for a fourth straight quarter, to 5,378 units in the first quarter of 2025 from 8,640 a year earlier, while truck body shipments dropped to 1,527 units from 3,190 over the same span. The Transportation Solutions segment, Wabash's largest, has posted four consecutive quarters of declining net sales, falling to $250.2 million in the first quarter of 2025 from $400.2 million in the second quarter of 2024, and its gross margin has been negative for two straight quarters, sitting at a loss of 6.2% in both the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. Parts & Services has moved the opposite direction, growing net sales in each of the last several quarters, including a 32.6% jump in the fourth quarter of 2024, but the segment remains too small to offset the core trailer business.
Revenue nonetheless landed above the midpoint of the $380 million to $400 million range Wabash gave for the second quarter in its first-quarter release, and adjusted per-share loss of $0.54 to $0.60 came in near the low end of the guided $0.40-to-$0.60 range. That beat follows a first quarter in which actual revenue of $303.2 million missed the company's own $310 million to $330 million guidance and fell 20.4% year over year, a decline steeper than the fourth quarter's 21.4% drop. Wabash stopped issuing full-year guidance starting with its fourth-quarter 2024 release, after providing annual outlooks in the second and third quarters of 2024, and has not resumed the practice.
One bright spot emerged in order activity. Total backlog rose to more than $950 million at the end of the second quarter from $837 million at the end of the first quarter, an increase of roughly $113 million that reversed the steep decline recorded in the prior quarter from $705 million at the end of 2024. The rebuild in backlog contrasts with the ongoing slide in shipments and margins, pointing to a lag between bookings and the revenue Wabash has been able to recognize.
Cash generation has not kept pace with the order recovery. Free cash flow was negative $37.3 million in the first quarter, worse than the negative $29.1 million posted a year earlier and following a negative $69.3 million outflow in the fourth quarter of 2024, extending a run of cash burn across recent quarters. First-quarter GAAP net loss attributable to common stockholders was $45.2 million, more than four times the $9.6 million loss recorded in the second quarter of 2024 and worse than the $49.9 million loss booked in the fourth quarter, showing the loss has not narrowed sequentially despite guidance that had called for improvement.
Against that backdrop, Wabash moved to shore up its balance sheet. The company launched a $100 million convertible senior notes offering due 2032, with a $15 million upsize option, and plans to amend and extend $275 million of its revolving credit facility while evaluating refinancing options for its $400 million of 4.50% senior notes due 2028. The financing steps mark Wabash's first such disclosure across the quarters reviewed and come as the company works through the trough in trailer demand.
One recurring item fell away from the quarter's reconciliations. The Missouri legal matter, which produced a $4.6 million charge in the second quarter of 2024 and an $81.2 million favorable settlement gain in the third quarter of 2024, did not appear as an adjustment in the anchor release's EBITDA or EPS reconciliations, indicating the matter has been resolved and removed from the non-GAAP adjustment set.